My Bizzy Kitchen

From the kitchen of the Biggest Diabetic Loser: a healthy balance of food and exercise. . . while keeping blood sugars normal!

Archive for the category “Chili”

15 Jun 2011
27 Comments

Rocco’s Super-Light Mexican Chili

Wow -thanks for all your comments yesterday clearing up the confusion I had over the Athena/weight classifications on races – I had no idea!  You guys are so smart. :D

Guess who got up and went to the gym yesterday?  Yep, my 101 Day Challengers know that I wanted to swim twice this week and run a 5k outside.  I was happy when I walked by the pool on my way to the locker room that there were three lanes open – woot!

I just decided to go slow and steady.  Like running outside, I tend to go too fast, and then have to stop.  I am happy to say that other than adjusting my goggles a couple times, I was able to swim for 40 minutes without stopping.  And then I hit the hot tub, and then the eucalyptus steam room.  What a great way to start the day. :D

And I put on make up and fixed my hair – who am I?!  I had my lunch packed in my car in a cooler, but decided I’d pick up McDonald’s oatmeal for breakfast – I accessorized it by adding 1/2 a sliced banana and an ounce of my homemade granola – a delicious, albiet sweet, and filling breakfast for 10 points.

With weather in the low 70′s, it was impossible not to ride my bike at lunch.  Another 50 minutes of working out and about 8 miles total.  :D I was hungry when I got back.  One of the dishes I made for my SIL and me this week was Rocco diSpirito’s Super-light Mexican chili con carne with beans.  While I do think my Best Buffalo Chicken Chili is better, this one was good – especially when I added cherry peppers to my bowl. :D

Rocco’s Super-Light Mexican Chili Con Carne with Beans

  • 7 PointsPlus per cup

Ingredients:

  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium onion, diced fine (left out)
  • 1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped (I added this)
  • One 28 ounce can plum tomatoes with juice
  • 3 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 12 ounces ground turkey (I used 12 ounces ground chicken breast)
  • One 14 ounce can black beans, drained
  • 1 cup shredded 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese, such as Cabot (I used 3/4 an ounce of real cheese in bowl, same point value)

Here are my quick cooking instructions.  Add garlic, peppers, tomatoes with juice, chili powder and cumin.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium low, and simmer for 10 minutes, until the peppers are soft.  I then pureed the mixture, added the ground chicken and black beans and cooked an additional 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.   I had mine with 3 points of tortilla chips and mixed in zero point spaghetti squash for a super filling 11 Points Plus lunch. :D

Because the spaghetti squash was kinda watery, it turned out to be kind of like what Rachael Ray calls a stoup – a cross between a soup and a stew – delicious!

I knew I bought scallops for a reason over the weekend, but for the life of me I couldn’t find the recipe I originally wanted.  So I made one up!  I knew I had polenta in my pantry – Tony loves it, and while I would have loved a spicy red sauce to go over the top, this was delicious just the way it was.  And each serving is only 11 PointsPlus!

Seared Scallops and Shrimp over Parmesan Polenta

  • 2 servings, 11 PointsPlus per serving

Ingredient:

  • 3/4 pound sea scallops (ours were big 6 scallops was 3/4 pound!)
  • 10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 8 tablespoons polenta
  • 2 cups water
  • generous pinches of salt and pepper
  • 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1 zucchini, sliced

Pat the shrimp and scallops dry and generously salt and pepper.

Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil.  While that’s going, heat a small saute pan with Pam and add zucchini – cook for 5 minutes, or until they start to brown.  Set aside.

When the water boils, add the polenta, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.  While its super smooth at this point, when it starts to cool it thickens up.  Once you remove the polenta off the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese, and leave in the pot to keep warm.

Now bring a skillet to a super high heat – add oil and then sear the shrimp – I put my garlic on top so it doesn’t burn and toss the shrimp after I turn them to coat.  These only take about 2-3 minutes to cook – put on a plate and cover to keep warm.

Take a sharp knife and cut the top of one side of the scallops to make hatch marks – add another teaspoon of oil to the pan and put this side down first.  Cook 1-2 minutes per side depending on the size of your scallops – I was close to 4 minutes total.

Plate half the polenta on the plate, put scallops and shrimp along the top and add the grilled zucchini.

Hopefully that makes sense – can you tell I don’t write recipes much?!

Be sure to use lose polenta, not the premade polenta in a roll in the Italian aisle.

Since the only real seasoning is salt and pepper (and garlic) generously season the shrimp and scallops.

Here is the final dish – holy shizz this was tasty!

Yep, this one is a keeper!

Stats for Tuesday:

  • 40 minute swim
  • 20 minute hot tub/steam room
  • 50 minute bike ride :D
  • 34 points
  • average blood sugar 117

Come back tomorrow for a new blueberry scone recipe – I haven’t figure out the points exactly yet, but I think it will be around 6 points – with the lemon glaze!  Make it a great day!

Posted in Rocco's Super Light Mexican Chili, Uncategorized
10 Apr 2011
22 Comments

BSI – Mango, Lenten Chili and WW Weigh In

I guess I’ll start with the good news first:

So close to -10.0!!

So that means I got my 5% sticker.  I told Tony that I was mad I didn’t hit the 10 pound loss yesterday, but then I said “I’ll get it next week so I’ll get another sticker!”  Apparently, I am all about the stickers. :D

Since things are so crazy at work, I decided to make lunch for the support staff.  But since half of them are Catholic, I couldn’t make my famous (and award winning!) Buffalo Chicken Chili.   So I made  Lenten Chili.

Ingredients:  (Makes 8 generous servings: 7 PointsPlus – about 1.5 cups each)

  • 1 pound black beans, soaked overnight, and rinsed
  • 6 cups beef broth (hope that didn’t break any lenten rules!)
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 1 yellow pepper diced
  • 2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
  • 6 ounce can of tomato paste
  • 2 cups Boca Crumbles

Add the rinsed black beans into a large stock pot.  Add remaining ingredients except for Boca Crumbles, and cook for 60 minutes.  Add boca crumbles and cook for 30 more minutes, or until the black beans are tender.

I just put it on my work stove around 11:30 on Friday and had ff sour cream, reduced fat Mexican cheese and Hint of Lime and Hint of Jalapeno (yum!) tortilla chips on the side.

This is a perfect chili for a crowd, because its not too spicy.  Of course, I generously splashed Tabasco in my bowl. :D   There was probably 1/2 a cup left in the pot in the end.

Since there was no meat on Friday, I decided to make a bay scallop gratin again.  We had this dish right before Tony’s surgery.  All we did was dip garlic bread and crackers in it – it is so good.  I actually think the bay scallops are a bit sweeter to me than sea scallops.

we would have to pay about $30 in a restaurant for the size of this dish - I did only use 3/4 of this package though and froze the rest

the secret is in the butter/olive oil/garlic/bread crumb topping :D

So this weeks BSI is Mango.  Given the crazy week I’ve had, I decided to go through my archives and submit an old recipe.  Only one problem.  I didn’t have one recipe with mango in it!  So I am taking the easy route, but this turned out really good.

Mango Pineapple Apple Smoothie (2 servings – 1 pt. each)

  • 6 ounces apples juice
  • 4 ounces fresh mango
  • 4 ounces fresh pineapple
  • 1.5 cups ice cubes
  • Put in a blender and blend :D

This was so refreshing and perfect right before Hannah and I went swimming – yep, Hannah bought us our own pool toys so we wouldn’t get busted.  We ended up doing 20 minutes of cardio and then swam and played for 40 minutes – so much fun!

Enjoy your Sunday!  Our temps will be 80 but tornado weather comes with it. :(


Posted in Black Bean Boca Chili, Uncategorized
26 Jan 2011
40 Comments

I didn’t want Tony’s Comment to go unnoticed . . .

Here is Tony’s comment from yesterdays post:

Mr. Biz (Tony) says:

 

 

It’s been a long time since so many people discussed my ass.

Thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers!! I am constantly amazed how wonderful and thoughtful you all are during times like this.

This cancer picked the wrong ass to attack. I have begun eating hot foods, nuts, and bran. If this cancer thinks it can hang around enjoying itself, it is sadly mistaken! I gave the tumor the finger when I saw it outlined on the butt monitor. Soon it will be cut from me, and if I am allowed to I will spit on it.

Thank you to all of Biz’s “friends” in the blogosphere. You will never know how much it meant to her and I.

FUCK cancer!!!

I could not have said it any better honey – I love you! :D   (and yes, I’ve been using WordPress for 2 1/2 years and just noticed the quotation marks in the tool bar!)

After seeing a couple people having savory oats recently, I realized I haven’t had them in ages.  My bowl: 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 ounce cheddar cheese, 1 fried egg in Pam and lots of Frank’s hot sauce and Tabasco :D   9 PointsPlus

 

oh, and an ounce of chopped ham :D

 Before the gym my blood sugar was 150, and I’d rather it be over 200 so I don’t bottom out.  I ate two of these pears and that worked perfectly – I think these are Bosc?  They never get super ripe, but are so sweet.

At the gym I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, toggling between walking at 3.5 mph for 5 minutes, then running at 4.8 mph for 5 minutes.  I still have a bit of a stuffy nose, but definitely worked up a sweat. :D    I am not liking the lunch time viewing on FoodNetwork – its Ina Garten for a solid hour and her voice sometimes puts me to sleep.

As most of the long time readers will know, Tony does not do leftovers.  I was looking in my fridge and saw that I had leftover pork tenderloin.  I actually got the idea for this chili off of eTools on the Weight Watcher’s website – they have a feature that you can add what you have and it will suggest recipes.  I didn’t have as many beans as the original recipe, and I also added frozen corn.

This is a very mild chili – I had to seriously spice my bowl up with some Tabasco, but Tony loved it – as he can’t handle the heat! :D

Pork and Black Bean Chili (printer friendly version here)

Course: main meals
PointsPlus™ Value:    4
Servings:  10 (1 1/4 cup each)

Preparation Time:  5 min
Cooking Time:  120 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Ingredients

1 1/4 pound(s) Pork, tenderloin, cooked
2 cup(s) canned black beans
2 clove(s) garlic clove(s), minced (medium)
12 oz cooked frozen yellow corn
4 cup(s) canned diced tomatoes
2 cup(s) water
1 tsp olive oil
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp cayenne pepper, (optional – leave out for mild chili)
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp table salt

Instructions

Dice up leftover pork roast.  Set aside.
In a large stock pot, heat oil and add garlic, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, cumin, paprika and Italian seasoning and cook until fragrant.
Pour in the two cups of water, stirring the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil and add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, black beans and cayenne and bring to a simmer and let cook for 2 hours.
Twenty minutes before serving, stir in chopped pork and frozen corn. Season with salt and pepper.  (my serving was closer to 1 3/4 cups for 7 points)

with tortilla chips, lunch comes in at 10 points

I didn’t do a full menu/meal plan this week because I really had no idea what was going to be going on with Tony.  We meet with a surgeon tomorrow and will have more information then.

I had defrosted Italian sausage the night before for our stuffed peppers and needed to use that up.  When I was at Whole Foods last time, I picked up two boxes of this pasta, pretty much the same stats as regular pasta – 5 points per cup.

It looks like this dry:

I really liked this pasta, it didn’t taste gluten free at all.  My plate: chopped mixed greens on the bottom, 1 cup pasta, 2 ounces Italian sausage (that I thought would be 3 points, but turned out to be 5 points), pasta sauce and 1/4 ounce shaved parmesan cheese.  Dinner was 11 points.  And just as I was taking a picture with my new camera, the battery died, so Old Blue had to step in:

I may have added some crushed red pepper flakes to my dish :D

Stats for Tuesday:

  • 31 points
  • 40 minutes on treadmill
  • average blood sugar 117

Thanks again for your continued support – we appreciate it!

p.s.  Don’t forget that this weeks BSI is couscous over at Dana’s Food for Thought. You have until Sunday to submit a recipe, and remember, it doesn’t have to be a recent recipe you’ve posted!  I am going to submit my Quinoa Meatballs.  And yes, I thought if I used red quinoa, Tony and Hannah wouldn’t notice, but they did!  Um, apparently I don’t know the difference between couscous and quinoa!  Ahem, this is the recipe I am submitting to BSI this week – Shrimp Salad with Honey Jalapeno Lime Dressing.  It’s 11 points for a very generous serving! :D

Off to make breakfast pizza – have a great day!

Posted in Pork and Black Bean Chili
13 Jan 2011
25 Comments

Sweat is the Cologne of Accomplishment

Since I discovered that my body can not handle two work outs a day, I still make myself get up at the same time, otherwise before I know it, I’ll be getting out of bed at 8:16 to get to my desk at 8:45.

So I had time to make breakfast nachos.  I thought I would use some low carb tortillas – each one is only 50 calories and 6 grams of fiber.  Um, it doesn’t work.  They didn’t crisp up until they got burnt!  I took them out of the oven and just set them on top of the stove to cool before I threw them away.  I forgot to throw them away, so when I was at work, Tony sent me an email saying thanks for leaving him burnt chips! :D

Now this is better – although I used store bought chips, so the points total is 7 PointsPlus.

I am happy to report that day three of soup week at my office was another success, and actually I think our favorite soup of the week.  I found a similar recipe on Eating Well, a verde chili, but took just the ground sirloin and store bought green salsa as my base.  This is such a quick soup (or stoup as Rachael Ray would say!) that it could easily be  week night dinner.

Beef and Bean Chile Verde (printer friendly version here)

Course: main meals
PointsPlus™ Value:    7
Servings:  5 (1 3/4 cup)

Preparation Time:  5 min
Cooking Time:  20 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Ingredients
1 medium green pepper(s), diced
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
16 oz store bought green salsa
3 cup(s) canned chicken broth  (I guess you could use beef broth too)
1 cup(s) cooked brown rice
2 cup(s) Bush’s Light Red Kidney Beans  (1 14 oz. can – rinsed)
3/4 pound(s) uncooked lean ground beef (with 7% fat)

Instructions

Heat stock pot over medium heat. Add ground sirloin and diced green pepper and cook until sauces is starting to brown and cook – 8 to 10 minutes.
You won’t need to use any oil because you will use the fat from the meat, which is very lean.
Add chili powder, cumin and cayenne, and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir in salsa and chicken broth (could also use beef broth I guess) and simmer over medium low for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Stir in beans and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.

The store bought green salsa I bought is made fresh – they sell it in 8 ounce containers for .99 cents.  They have both a mild and a hot.  I bought two mild, tasted the first one, it was mild, but did not taste the second one.  After it cooked down it was REALLY spicy – and you know how I like my spicy!  But the dollop of plain Greek yogurt on the top made this perfect.  With a side of Food Should Be Good multi-grain chips, lunch comes in at 11 points.

I ended up not getting the workout done I wanted at lunch because I had to cover someone’s lunch shift.  So I only got in 35 minutes on the elliptical.  Hannah and I were talking in the afternoon, and we decided to check out one of the workout classes.  I’ve heard about BodyPump from Erica before she teaches it.  But for some reason I was under the impression that it was half cardio/half strength training.

Um, no – its all strength training!!  But to be on the safe side, I decided not to take any insulin with dinner so I’d have enough to work out hard – it worked out perfectly – after the workout my blood sugar was 118!

I made sloppy Joe’s for dinner on Arnold Thins and had a side of veggie chips.  While Hannah and I loved this recipe because it wasn’t too sweet, Tony wished it would have been sweeter, so maybe next time I’ll add a touch more brown sugar to his. :D

Sloppy Joe’s Ala Biz (printer friendly version)

Course: main meals
PointsPlus™ Value:    6
Servings:  4 (4 oz. of meat per sammie)

Preparation Time:  5 min
Cooking Time:  10 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Ingredients
1 pound(s) ground sirloin, raw
1 tsp unpacked brown sugar
2 Tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp Contadina Tomato Paste, with 100% Tomatoes
1 cup(s) canned tomato sauce
Instructions

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
Add meat to pan, and spread the meat around to break up. Combine the brown sugar and steak seasoning. Add this mixture to the skillet and combine with meat.
Once meat us cooked, reduce heat to medium and add red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce and simmer for 5 minutes longer.
Serve over choice of bun.

Dinner comes in at 13 points

So Hannah and I get to the gym – there is limited space but we got numbers.  We get in the room and its packed – with equipment!  We needed a mat, a stair step, a barbell with your choice of weights and hand weights.  We scrambled to get everything together (note to self, maybe arrive 15 minutes before class next time!).

I decide to grab 2kg weights for each end of my bar bell.  I thought it was probably about the equivalent of 2 or 3 points – nope – its 5 pounds, so with both weights and the bar, it was probably 12 pounds, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you do 5 minutes straight of bicep curls!

I’ll tell you this, I’ve never worked that hard doing an exercise video.  I am competitive by nature, and by God I was going to do every rep the instructor did, no matter how difficult.  We did get breaks in between some sets, but I’d say it was definitely 50 minutes of continuous strength – biceps, triceps, lunges, squats, push-ups AND abs.  I can really feel it in my upper back and biceps today.

My plan is to do 3 group classes a week – next on my list is spin class over the weekend :D

I have to say its nice having Hannah as my work out buddy.  When we got home she was entering her dinner in her food journal and was Googling online inspirational sayings.  As I was walking by her room she said to me: “Mom, sweat is the cologne of your accomplishment!” We laughed so hard over that quote!

Stats for Wednesday:

  • 31 points used
  • 10 Flex Points Remain
  • 23 Activity points not used
  • 35 minutes elliptical
  • 50 minutes Body Pump strength training
  • average blood sugar 105

Alright – off the gym to swim and I am definitely sitting in the hot tub when I am done! :D

Make it a great day!

Posted in Beef and Bean Chile Verde, Sloppy Joe's Ala Biz, Uncategorized
11 Jan 2011
38 Comments

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili and Lightened Bolognese

I was all set to go to the gym yesterday morning.  Bathing suit laid out, gym bag packed, granola bar in purse.  The only problem?  I woke up an hour and fifteen minutes later than I intended!   My alarm did go off at six, but my “just one more minute” turned into a lot more.  But not to worry, I decided to make today a rest day and I’ll just work out on Wednesday. :D

I had my old camera with me today – it isn’t until I download my pictures that I realize how much I LOVE my new camera!  I am sure you can tell which pictures were taken with Old Blue and my Nikon!

Breakfast was a breakfast burrito and a Vanilla Chobani – 8 points.

Tony had an appointment near my office and picked me up for lunch.  We were the first customers, so even after driving to the restaurant, eating and getting back to my office, I was only gone 40 minutes!  I knew I was getting a salad ahead of time, but do you know what was on their special menu?  Giardienera sliders with pepper jack cheese and tater tots!  My mouth is watering just typing that sentence!

But I stuck to my plan – and maybe had 3 of Tony’s tots!  I got the julienne salad, brought my own Paul Newman’s dressing – lunch comes in at 9 points.

It's mostly iceburg lettuce too :(

What I originally had on my lunch menu today (but will never pass up lunch with Tony!) is Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili.  I adapted this recipe from an Eating Well recipe.  I’ve been putting my recipes into eTools, then copying them and pasting them here.  The only problem is that there are scripts that keep trying to run when I paste them here that drive me insane – I think I wrote the same paragraph 5 times in yesterday’s post but the script kept stopping it and when I would hit save, I’d lose all the pictures and words.

So I am going back to making printer friendly versions on Google Docs.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili (recipe and printer friendly version here)

I forgot to tell you that two of my co-workers are doing WW and I am making them soup all week, and get this – they are paying me to do it!  Their contribution to Soup Week here on My Bizzy Kitchen paid for 1/3 of my groceries for the week!

My one co-worker said “I love sweet potatoes and this is going on my dinner menu next week – best chili ever and two snaps around the world!”  My other co-worker was under the weather, but upon reading such a rave review, ate it and loved it and gave me two thumbs up!  I was nice and gave my chili to my boss – she is a Lean Cuisine junky so she loved it too :D

I loved how I had my Nikon lens cap on the cutting board!

I don't even like sweet potatoes, but I loved this.

The original recipe didn’t call for a canned chipotle pepper, but the first taste was a tad too sweet for me, but once I added the pepper, it was the perfect balance of sweet and heat.  First soup of the week = success!  On tap tomorrow. . . chicken and spinach soup with pesto.  :D

I randomly get sent Cuisine at Home, and most times there are just a couple recipes that I would like to try.  The cover picture stopped me in my tracks.  Again, I bizzified the recipe, removing the damn onions, and using regular Italian sausage instead of turkey Italian sausage.

Lightened Bolognese (recipe and printer friendly version here)

 

here was the cover picture

and my plate on a bed of baby spinach – 1 cup chopped baby spinach, 1 cup cooked pasta, 3/4 cup sauce and a slice of garlic bread – 14 PointsPlus.

I was skeptical about using ground turkey breast instead of beef, but since I added the Italian sausage it still had a meaty taste.  Yum!

Stats for Monday:

  • 31 points (only 12 flex points left – too much wine over the weekend!)
  • no exercise – rest day
  • average blood sugar: 98 :D

Do you guys remember these things?

The package says it grows 600%!  It’s been in water since Saturday – can’t wait to see how big it gets!  (and yes, I am like a five year old at times!)

And today . . . I am off to the gym!  Have a great day :D

p.s.  Check out Nicole’s post about Weight Watchers new Program. Anyone who has questions about this program should read this post – she’s a registered dietitian and breaks down the program so its easy to understand.  Thanks Nicole! :D

p.s.s.  Don’t forget to submit your healthy recipes for a chance to win one of two AUTOGRAPHED copies of Rocco DiSpirito’s new cookbook – Now Eat This!  You have until Friday, January 14 to enter. :D

Posted in Lightened Bolognese, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili, Uncategorized

Post Navigation

← Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 235 other followers